Abstract
Neuroscientific investigations regarding aspects of emotional experiences usually focus on one stimulus modality (e.g., pictorial or verbal). Similarities and differences in the processing between the different modalities have rarely been studied directly. The comparison of verbal and pictorial emotional stimuli often reveals a processing advantage of emotional pictures in terms of larger or more pronounced emotion effects evoked by pictorial stimuli. In this study, we examined whether this picture advantage refers to general processing differences or whether it might partly be attributed to differences in visual complexity between pictures and words. We first developed a new stimulus database comprising valence and arousal ratings for more than 200 concrete objects representable in different modalities including different levels of complexity: words, phrases, pictograms, and photographs. Using fMRI we then studied the neural correlates of the processing of these emotional stimuli in a valence judgment task, in which the stimulus material was controlled for differences in emotional arousal. No superiority for the pictorial stimuli was found in terms of emotional information processing with differences between modalities being revealed mainly in perceptual processing regions. While visual complexity might partly account for previously found differences in emotional stimulus processing, the main existing processing differences are probably due to enhanced processing in modality specific perceptual regions. We would suggest that both pictures and words elicit emotional responses with no general superiority for either stimulus modality, while emotional responses to pictures are modulated by perceptual stimulus features, such as picture complexity.
Highlights
Most studies investigating emotional information processing use either verbal or pictorial stimuli to induce emotion, reliably revealing the involvement of limbic and paralimbic regions, such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, the insula, or the visual cortex (e.g. [1,2,3])
It has been claimed that pictorial stimuli are able to induce higher emotional reactions, but it still remains an open question whether it is the modality that is responsible for stronger emotional responses or whether the previously found superiority of pictures may rather be attributed to perceptual stimulus features such as differences in perceptual complexity, i.e. the amount of visual details of a stimulus
The present study investigated the processing of positive emotional information and the role of visual complexity in verbal and pictorial material using a valence judgment task
Summary
Most studies investigating emotional information processing use either verbal or pictorial stimuli to induce emotion, reliably revealing the involvement of limbic and paralimbic regions, such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, the insula, or the visual cortex (e.g. [1,2,3]). Most studies investigating emotional information processing use either verbal or pictorial stimuli to induce emotion, reliably revealing the involvement of limbic and paralimbic regions, such as the amygdala, the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, the insula, or the visual cortex While some authors claim that pictorial and verbal information is processed in much the same way [4], dual coding theories [5,6]) postulate that information in pictures and words is processed differently and along distinct channels, creating separate semantic representations. Arguing for shared information representation and similar processing of pictures and words, Caramazza [4] claimed that semantic information is represented in a functional unitary system that is directly accessed by both visual objects and words. More recent influential theories of semantic processing propose that meaning is represented as embodied simulations of previous experiences (e.g. [8]), suggesting a unitary experience-based representation system
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